With so many different types of animals in the world to love from domestic to wild it's hard to pick just one to call your favorite. The same can be said about plush toys how it is possible to choose just one that is the most special of them all? When it comes to the animals in the wild, there can be little debate that tigers are pretty spectacular creatures. The same can be said about tigers in the world of plush toys; a really stunning tiger stuffed animal is hard to beat when it comes to soft toys. Some tiger stuffed animals are so beautiful in fact, it's hard to choose just one to take home.
On the Queensland coast of Australia is a place called Dreamworld, which is a theme park with a difference because its biggest attractions were once tiny bundles of fluff. In 1998, four baby Bengal tigers were born on Dreamworld's Tiger Island. It is with no surprise that these adorable cubs became instant celebrities and went on to be known as the Awesome Pawsome.
As one can imagine, hand-raising tiger cubs is no easy occupation. It literally requires a dedicated team of people working around the clock, because on Tiger Island, humans are the ones that take over from the cubs massive mother. By bonding with their handlers, the tigers are given a life free from behind the bars of a cage.
Fast forward ten years later and things are very different at Dreamworld on Tiger Island - the Awesome Pawsome are all grown up. The once cuddly cubs now weigh more than 300 pounds. They are armed with claws more than three inches long and have two and a half inch fangs the largest canine teeth of any carnivore on land. They can climb 15 foot tree trunks, leap 20 feet in the air, and run at speeds of more than 40 miles per hour. They are now Dreamworld's biggest stars. While all four tigers are incredibly impressive, there is only one that can be called awesome; weighing 470 pounds, Sultan is the biggest tiger in all of Australia and the indisputable king of Tiger Island.
Dreamworld hopes to have the same success today, raising tiger cubs by hand, as they did with the Awesome Pawsome ten years ago. This time, however, they are hopeful it will be with the incredibly rare Sumatran tiger. Breeding of a Sumatran tiger in captivity may be the species' last hope for survival.
While we can only ever dream to have an awesome pawsome of our own, a tiger stuffed animal will just have to suffice. And, given a tiger stuffed animal, in all its glory, it is truly a work of art in the soft toy world, and is just a little closer to having the real thing.
Angeline Hope is a collector of stuffed tiger animals. You can view a selection of tiger stuffed animals at MyBigPlush.
